First Advisor

Jack Miller

Term of Graduation

Spring 2025

Date of Publication

5-30-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (M.S.) in Political Science

Department

Political Science

Language

English

Subjects

Billionaires, Immunity, Inequality, Law, Power, Wealth

DOI

10.15760/etd.3979

Physical Description

1 online resource (viii, 134 pages)

Abstract

Billionaires are inherently unique political actors. They, and their wealth, are a species apart. This rarity is measurable by quantifying relative consequences for actions made on behalf of that wealth. This thesis explores whether or not a billionaire's political power provides them with immunity to federal laws and regulations that govern wealth and its political use. The objective of this research is two-fold: to illustrate the scholarship gap regarding American billionaires and their relative immunity from federal law, and to instigate academia to study billionaires politically at increasing rates, providing more data for lawmakers regarding the most economically powerful political actors and their influence on American institutions.

Exploiting a case study design with a statistical analysis of existing data, this thesis scrutinizes federal enforcement figures from institutions like the Federal Trade Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission to measure the novel "Relative Rate of Consequence" for a synecdoche of billionaires between 1999 and 2023, assessing the legal immunity of the twenty-five wealthiest U.S. billionaires. The findings indicate that de facto immunity persists over this timeframe, and government agents appear unable or unwilling to hold these illiberal political actors and their wealth comparatively accountable, with any consequence resembling a small fee.

Studying billionaires is essential to political science, which is tasked with scrutinizing power, and political power for many years has been represented by great wealth. Yet, the modern iteration of peak political power, extremely concentrated wealth and its immunity to and power over the American political process, is either misunderstood or discarded. The academic silence is problematic and existing scholarship on billionaires is disproportionately lacking to their political heft--and this work is a starting gun for more research into billionaires.

Rights

© 2025 Conor Kawika Carroll

In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/43950

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